Transformers 3 in 3D?

Thanks to the huge success of Avatar in 3D, it seems a movie isn't even allowed to be released without taking advantage of the format. Even the new Clash of the Titans movie is being converted to take advantage of the new found interest in 3D even though it wasn't designed or filmed for the format.

Hoping to ride that 3D train, Paramount seems to be attempting to force Transformers director Michael Bay to film Transformers 3 in 3D. Bay has said last year he thinks 3D is a gimmick saying "The way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras. It’s a time consuming thing. Who knows… It might be a fad. I’m kinda old school. I’m old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, and that is old school.”

According to Variety, "there have been discussions among Bay, Paramount and Industrial Light & Magic about going 3D with the pic. The big stumbling block is the extra time required to do production and visual effects in 3D, as the movie's release date is already set. Having the pic post-converted could alleviate that problem."

At the end of the day money talks and Bay is a business man so I wouldn't be surprised if a 3D version is released. This does create some problems though as Bay was worked on both Transformers 1 and 2 almost up to the last minute, something a 3D conversion wouldn't allow. This means that his theoretical one and half year lead to shoot the film and complete post-production, voice work etc has probably shrunk by a good three or so months. Another question is will this impact how Bay shoots the film? Will he embrace 3D or just ignore the conversion and shoot the film the way he planned to begin with? As always time will tell. Thanks to Kris for the link.